- Starbucks sued over ‘sugar-free’ claims for protein beverages
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser
“A proposed class-action lawsuit filed Friday in Seattle federal court accuses Starbucks of falsely advertising eight of its protein beverages as ‘sugar-free’ when they actually contain between 13 and 21 grams of naturally occurring sugar per serving. The lawsuit claims the Seattle-based coffee giant misled consumers who ordered 20-ounce or 24-ounce ‘venti’ sizes of its new protein-focused drinks. The complaint states that while the beverages may not contain added sugars, the milk used in them introduces lactose, a form of natural sugar, exceeding federal limits for ‘sugar-free’ labeling.” (10/05/26)
- Canada: Separatist party projected to win Quebec election, adding new test to nation’s unity
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Canada’s Parti Québécois (PQ) is projected to have won enough seats in Quebec’s provincial election to form a minority government, though the separatists will need other parties’ support to achieve their aims – such as a new public vote on independence. It marks the first time the PQ has been in power since 2014, with Paul St-Pierre Plamondon set to become the province’s new leader. In his victory speech, St-Pierre Plamondon again raised his independence plans but vowed to be ‘the premier of everyone in Quebec’. The result could prove a fresh test for Prime Minister Mark Carney, also setting up confrontations with Québec over issues like immigration and the monarchy. In its effort to achieve independence, the PQ has pledged to hold a referendum on separating from the rest of Canada.” (10/06/26)
- Kosovo: Protesters Clash With Police Over War Crimes Court Law
Source: US News & World Report
“Protesters clashed with police outside Kosovo’s government and parliament buildings on Monday, calling for lawmakers to pass legislation that would limit the powers of a Kosovo war crimes court in The Hague. The protest came weeks after the court sentenced former President Hashim Thaci and three others to a combined 81 years in prison for war crimes. Police fired tear gas and used water cannon to disperse demonstrators who threw firecrackers and stones at officers guarding parliament and government buildings in central Pristina.” (10/05/26)
- Spain: Regime lifts arrest warrant for Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont
Source: SFGate
“A Spanish Supreme Court judge lifted the arrest warrant for Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont on Tuesday, clearing the way for him to return home without fear of detention for the first time in nearly a decade. Puigdemont, Catalonia’s former regional president, fled [Catalonia] for Belgium in 2017 after leading a failed attempt to break Catalonia away from Spain. He has since avoided attempts by Spain to have him sent back to face a court, while many of his confidants and supporters spent time in prison. Now he looks set to go back to Spain just when the country is preparing for a national election next month. It is too early to know how his return would impact the campaign, but given his unpopularity in most of Spain, it is likely that opposition parties would try to use his return against incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.” (10/06/26)
- TX: Homeowner fatally shoots man who broke into home after fleeing disturbance, police say
Source: KSAT News
“A homeowner shot and killed a 36-year-old man who broke into his home after he fled a nearby disturbance Sunday night, according to the Lytle Police Department. Just after 10:30 p.m. Sunday, officers responded to the 14600 block of Butch Cassidy Street in the Saddle Ridge Estates subdivision after reports of a disturbance. In a news release, Lytle police said witnesses reported that the man appeared ‘aggressive and out of control’ before fleeing the scene. The man entered a nearby residence that had no apparent connection to him. Police said the home appeared to have been selected at random. After the man entered the home and cornered the homeowner, police said the homeowner used a firearm to protect himself and his family. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.” (10/05/26)
- Annual Fundraiser: Tap … Tap … Is This Thing On?
Hey, everyone …
After a not too terrible weekend, our annual fundraiser had its first “zero-dollar day” yesterday. We remain stuck (as of 5am on October 6) at $115 toward our goal of $5,503 (actually $2,751.50, since reader GL is generously “matching funds” for the second half of the goal IF we can raise the first half).
Please support the freedom movement’s daily newspaper and help us get on track to reach the goal:
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
And have a great day!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily - Russia: Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow region kills two
Source: Yahoo! News
“Ukraine attacked the Moscow region with around 650 drones overnight, killing two people and damaging dozens of residential buildings, Russian authorities said early on Tuesday. Most of the drones were destroyed by air defences at long range, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on Telegram. He said 105 drones were destroyed as they approached the Russian capital. In addition to the two deaths, nine people were injured in the attack, according to Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region. It was not initially possible to verify these figures.” (10/06/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/ukraine-launches-major-drone-attack-080335186.html
- Trump signs executive order temporarily leashing diesel tax dogs
Source: CNN
“President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Monday aimed at bringing down near-record diesel prices by waiving restrictions on cheaper red-dyed diesel. Speaking at a campaign event in Nebraska, a state hit hard by the spike in diesel prices, Trump said the order will ‘allow anyone to purchase tax-free red-dyed diesel for any reason.’ … Red-dyed diesel is the same as regular diesel. It’s just untaxed and dyed red to distinguish it for off-road use only, such as for tractors or industrial purposes. … The fact sheet says the order directs the Treasury secretary, in consultation with the secretary of defense, to defer payment for on-road use of dyed diesel fuel for the rest of the year without interest or penalties and to ‘explore pathways to eliminate the obligation to pay the deferred taxes.'” [editor’s note: So the taxes aren’t actually coming off, they’re just getting extorted later – TLK] (10/05/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/05/business/trump-diesel-prices-executive-order
- Turkish, Pakistani regimes agree Saudi Arabia military deployment under Mecca pact
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Turkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have agreed to activate ‘deterrence measures’ under a mutual defence pact and rapidly deploy forces to the Gulf kingdom to counter attacks by Yemen’s Houthis. The decision was announced on Monday after the three countries’ defence and foreign ministers held an emergency meeting in Riyadh. It marked the first time the alliance – known as the Mecca Alliance for Defence – has been invoked since it was signed on August 7. … The announcements came hours after forces aligned with Yemen’s [Saudi puppet regime] launched a counteroffensive to retake territory the Iran-aligned Houthis captured last month. ” (10/05/26)
- US commodities regulator proposes new federal crypto oversight rules
Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“The US commodities regulator proposed on Monday a new federal framework for cryptocurrency exchanges that offer leveraged digital asset trading, seeking to bring parts of the spot crypto market under federal oversight weeks after Congress failed to advance comprehensive crypto regulation. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s proposed rules would effectively allow [sic] US crypto exchanges to opt into a federal regulatory framework instead of relying primarily on a patchwork of state money-transmitter licenses, the agency said. The proposed rules make use of a specific authority the CFTC has to oversee margined or leveraged spot assets. The CFTC has long sought authority to regulate spot cryptocurrency markets – which currently operate in a regulatory grey area – but only Congress has the ability to provide the regulator with that purview.” (10/05/26)
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/article317498369.html
- ICC unseals arrest warrants for four Taliban leaders wanted on gender persecution charges
Source: Ottumwa Courier
“The International Criminal Court on Monday unsealed arrest warrants against four senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of the crime against humanity of gender persecution against women, girls and members of the LGBTQI+ community in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in 2021. The court said in a statement that warrants were issued in July and September last year for the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani. Also wanted are Education Minister Habibullah Agha and Minister of Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadim. The existence of the warrants against Akhundzada and Haqqani was revealed last year, but the warrants remained sealed. With the Taliban in control of Afghanistan and the court having no police force to execute warrants, the prospect of any of the suspects being arrested is remote.” (10/05/26)
- Libya: Teachers’ strike escalates as union demands major education reforms
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Teachers in Libya have escalated their protests over salaries into an open-ended strike at public schools. Protests began on September 13, the day the school year was due to start. Sit-ins were held outside schools and government buildings in the capital, Tripoli. Two weeks later, Libya’s teachers union stepped up the campaign with a nationwide strike. It has kept students out of classrooms across the country. On Sunday, several Libyan unions representing other sectors threatened to join the strike unless the government entered talks to address a cost of living crisis.” (10/05/26)
- SCOTUS rejects appeal of school’s political t-shirt censorship
Source: Associated Press
“The Supreme Court is rebuffing an appeal from a Michigan woman fighting a school district’s ban on shirts with the phrase ‘Let’s Go Brandon,’ a jab at then-President Joe Biden with a coded reference to profanity. The mother of two boys says their First Amendment rights were violated when they were told to take off the sweatshirts she bought them for Christmas in 2022. A lower court disagreed, finding that the veiled vulgarity of the phrase, which functions as a stand-in for ‘F-— Joe Biden,’ allows schools to ban it. The woman’s attorneys argued that the decision wrongly gives school officials wide latitude to squelch political speech based on their personal ideas of what is vulgar. The phrase itself doesn’t contain any swear words or sexual implications, they said.” (10/05/26)
- Russia: Lab worker dies of suspected plague as 200 enter medical observation
Source: NBC News
“The death of a worker at an anti-plague laboratory in Russia has prompted officials to put at least one hospital facility under quarantine and nearly 200 people reportedly under medical observation as of Monday. The female staffer at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East died from a ‘pneumonia of undetermined’ origin last week, according to the regional governor, Igor Kobsev. He said no ‘microorganisms linked to the employee’s professional activities were detected’ in her body, and that there had been ‘no new cases’ of illness among other employees of the lab. … Russian media cited officials saying that nearly 200 people who had been in contact with the woman had been placed under precautionary medical observation.” (10/05/26)
- SCOTUS Rejects Roy Moore’s Push to Restore $8.2 Million Defamation Verdict
Source: US News & World Report
“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Roy Moore’s push to restore an $8.2 million defamation verdict over a 2017 Senate race ad funded by a Democratic-aligned super PAC. Justices declined to hear Moore’s appeal of a lower court decision that vacated the large verdict. The outcome keeps in place the decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that erased a jury’s decision that Moore had been defamed by the ad. It was a victory for Senate Majority PAC, which funded the ad, and argued it was truthful. … Leigh Corfman said Moore inappropriately touched her in 1979 when she was 14 and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. Moore denied the accusation. Other women said Moore dated them, or asked them out on dates, when they were older teens.” (10/05/26)
- Pakistan: Imran Khan supporters march to demand his release after talks failed
Source: ABC News
“More than 5,000 supporters of imprisoned former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan began a dayslong march toward Islamabad on Sunday to demand his release, after talks between the government and the opposition fell through. The looming showdown threatens to deepen Pakistan’s political uncertainty at a time when the country is also grappling with a surge in militant attacks. Khan is current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s main political rival and has been imprisoned since 2023 on corruption and other charges that he and his party say are politically motivated.” (10/05/26)
- Ethiopian regime again demands access to the Red Sea as tensions with neighbors escalate
Source: ABC News
“Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed reiterated on Monday that his landlocked country must have access to the Red Sea, despite neighboring countries saying at a summit Sunday that responsibility for the sea rests with states along its shores and warning of the risk of regional conflict. Ethiopia lost direct access to the Red Sea in 1993 after Eritrea, formerly a region of Ethiopia, became independent. Abiy said access to the Red Sea was critical to Ethiopia’s ‘civilization’ and that he would work to ensure the country has a port. … Ethiopia’s relations with its regional neighbors have deteriorated in recent months. The country also faces renewed war with separatist rebels in the northern Tigray region.” (10/05/26)
- US regime publicly confesses to four more maritime murders
Source: CBS News
“The U.S. military said it attacked a boat suspected of being used to smuggle drugs in the Caribbean Sea on Sunday, [murdering] four people, as the Trump administration continues its yearlong campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America. The latest attack brings the number of people who have been [murdered] in boat strikes by the U.S. military to at least 235 in 70 strikes since the administration began targeting those it calls ‘narcoterrorists’ in September 2025.” (10/05/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-strike-alleged-drug-smuggling-boat-caribbean-4-dead-southcom/
- Reports: Flydubai co-pilot planned to crash plane into Tel Aviv airport or building
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The co-pilot accused of trying to hijack a flydubai plane planned to crash the aircraft into Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport or a tower block in the Israeli city, US and Israeli reports suggest. The Omani national was ‘a lone wolf’ extremist, according to the reports. The United Arab Emirates’ attorney-general has said the co-pilot attempted to carry out ‘a terrorist act’ on flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv last Wednesday. He attacked and wounded the captain with the emergency crash axe kept in the cockpit before being overpowered by passengers. Another crew travelling on the plane was able to land it in Saudi Arabia. Israel’s prime minister has said the co-pilot underwent ‘Islamist radical indoctrination’ and the captain, passengers and a second crew prevented ‘a 9/11 disaster’.” (10/05/26)
- France: Up to 500 schools closed amid protests
Source: United Press International
“Authorities in France were forced to close as many as 500 high schools across the country as protests by thousands of students over the state of the education system extended into a third week. Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced Sunday that the schools would not reopen after the weekend with classes at 400 to 500 partially or completely canceled because of security that did not meet the levels required. Accusing left wing extremists of exploiting the dispute, Geffray said 78 staff had been injured and 24 schools ‘burned or ransacked’ since the protests, which he said were unprecedented, erupted Sept. 21 in low-income districts of Paris’ southeastern suburbs.” (10/05/26)
- Can Other States Learn From California’s Property Tax Experiment?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Patrick Carroll“Capping property taxes isn’t all upside, but California’s Proposition 13 shows how tax limits can protect property owners from sudden increases and provide greater predictability.” (10/06/26)
- Private Companies Will Finance the Welfare State
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Wojciech Wyszomierski“Since the start of the 21st century, Poland has seemed like a textbook example of sustainable development. The break from a centrally planned economy in the late 1980s, the opening of the market, and relatively low labor costs attracted substantial foreign capital. GDP began to grow rapidly, and for the first time, money appeared in Poles’ pockets. While Western Europe focused on developing the welfare state, Poland consistently reinvested its earnings …. While in 1990, Poland’s GDP per capita did not exceed $2,000, 20 years later it had risen to over $12,000. However, not everyone was pleased with this. Poorer residents, bombarded with reports of an improving economic situation, began to voice their belief more and more boldly that they were entitled to a slice of the state’s pie.” (10/06/26)
https://fee.org/articles/private-companies-will-finance-the-welfare-state/
- Brazil’s right turn reflects the global appeal of Trump’s American pride
Source: New York Post
by Daniel McCarthy“Latin America is turning right, and it’s a vindication for President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In some ways, the Cold War never really ended in the Western Hemisphere: socialism has haunted the nations of Central and South America long after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the same Cuban regime the Soviet Union propped up for decades remains in power to this day. The hard left thought it had cemented control over Venezuela, too, thanks to Hugo Chavez and Nicolàs Maduro — until American forces snatched Maduro right out of his bed back in January and took him to New York to stand trial.” (10/05/26)
- AI Versus Everything Else
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman“Until now, discussions of the potential economic problems created by the AI boom have mostly focused on the future. Will it destroy millions of jobs? Is there a bubble and will it cause a severe recession if it bursts? Will it destroy humanity? While these are doubtless very important questions, attempts to answer them are at best educated guesses. We don’t have to guess, however, about one major effect of the AI boom, because it’s happening right now: Massive spending on data centers is crowding out investment in everything else in the economy.” (10/06/26)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/ai-versus-everything-else
- Radical Decentralization: Liechtenstein’s Quiet Revolution
Source: Cobden Centre
by Thorsten Polleit“The world’s highest per-capita incomes are found in small political units—such as Monaco, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Singapore, and the Cayman Islands. Economically, the finding is easy to explain: small political units are not autarkic; they compete internationally for talent and capital. That is why they must treat their residents and firms well and offer attractive living conditions and a business-friendly framework. Above all, small political units must keep the tax burden low, remain peaceful toward their neighbors, and refrain from military adventures. Yet even small political units are not immune to the abuse of state power.” (10/06/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/10/radical-decentralization-liechtensteins-quiet-revolution/
- What the Bond Market Reveals about Congress, the National Debt and the Middle Class
Source: Independent Institute
by Alexander William Salter“High bond yields informally signal that the government absorbs too much of the nation’s scarce capital.” (10/05/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/10/05/bond-market-revelations-congress-debt-middle-class/
- The Flaw In The Barack Obama Fantasy About Women In Government
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
“Recently, a speech by former President Barack Obama about his fantasy of having women in charge went viral. ‘If you put women in charge of every government for like two years and then just kind of saw, alright, how are things going? I have a strong belief that things would — they wouldn’t be perfect — but they’d be better,’ he said in a discussion with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin at Salem State University. This is not the first time he has expressed his fantasy that if women ran every country, living standards would improve and we’d have fewer wars. … I did my best, and could find no scientific evidence that if women ran the governments of the world, we’d have more peace and/or a higher standard of living. The reality of it is, though, that to achieve these things, we need less reliance on gender and race, and more a focus on ideology.” (10/06/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/the-flaw-in-the-barack-obama-fantasy
- The Solution to University City’s Budget Problems Is Privatization
Source: Show-Me Institute
by David Stokes“University City is facing significant budget problems this year, driven in large part by costs associated with things the city does itself that private companies could better handle. As a resident of University City who works for a free-market policy organization that often supports government privatization, you can imagine my reaction to being given the opportunity to put my knowledge to work for my hometown. ‘Like a kid in a Delmar-Loop candy store’ would be the quickest analogy.” (10/05/26)
- The Rise of Gig Economy Warfare
Source: New York Times
by Katrin Bennhold“At first, it seemed like a large terror attack on a British air base had been thwarted. Then the story turned stranger. The five men arrested last week had been traveling in white vans in the middle of the night near a base in southern England that the U.S. has used in its war against Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had warned over the summer that ‘any base used to launch attacks on Iranian territory’ would be ‘a legitimate target.’ The arrests suggested that threat had materialized. But the details we’ve learned since then have been confusing. The men in the white vans? Not radicalized ideologues or hardened operators, but ‘unwitting chumps,’ one official said. … British security officials have warned for years about the dangers of these sorts of plots. Russia pioneered them; Iran has since taken up the mantle.” (10/05/26)
- How the Courts Became a Safe Haven for Corporations
Source: The American Prospect
by Zachary Groz“Last week, a federal district judge paused enforcement of a New York state law that banned landlords from using a centralized algorithmic platform to set rents. That platform, run by software company RealPage, had been the subject of a three-year federal antitrust investigation, which found the firm had facilitated something akin to a pricing cartel among rental property owners. Using a combination of public and proprietary data from landlords, the company had created an AI-powered tool that allowed property owners to coordinate rent hikes, suppressing competition and maximizing profits. While the Trump administration eventually settled the federal case, municipalities took notice and, starting with San Francisco in 2024, began outlawing the practice. Philadelphia, Berkeley, and Minneapolis followed suit, and late last year, New York took those regulatory measures a step further, becoming the first state to prohibit algorithmic rent-setting.” (10/06/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/10/06/how-courts-became-safe-haven-for-corporations/
- AI Made the List—but Humans Still Did the Killing
Source: Foreign Policy
by Sharon Weinberger“In NAZA, no one is worrying about rogue AI killing us off—that’s more a concern for Silicon Valley companies looking to raise capital. Rather, the film is rightfully concerned about the way that AI allows the military to justify killing ever more people, even as these systems absolve humans of the moral responsibility for choosing targets. ‘My role is entirely technical,’ says one IDF member, describing his part in the Gaza war. In this sense, AI gives soldiers a certain remove from the decision-making and even imbues such systems with virtue, since machines aren’t driven by hatred. … if AI is supposed to transfer responsibility for killing from humans to computers, and thus absolve humans of moral responsibility, it doesn’t quite work.” (10/05/26)
- Why is there a growing rebellion against the traditional tax system in the States?
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“Of course, the regressives and other enemies of liberty will tell you it is because people (especially those awful libertarians and sickening followers of Christ) are greedy and selfish, have no real compassion for the poor or people who wear different skin (or clothes) than they do, and the whole long litany we hear constantly. Clearly, TPOL and many of our readers disagree. (So we are even more evil, right?) But the rebellion against taxes is real, and the reasons people are rebelling are real and growing.” (10/05/26)
- The Three-Party Problem
Source: The Dispatch
by Yascha Mounk“The smart money in American politics has always bet against the rise of third parties. The reasons are both obvious and numerous. … The supposedly smart money is often based on conventional wisdom. But the problem with the conventional wisdom is that it is usually right for a long stretch—before suddenly proving to be disastrously wrong. Take, as an example, the longstanding conviction among political scientists studying the American primary system that party insiders ultimately decide who gets the presidential nomination, a supposed certainty that blinded large parts of the field to Trump’s rise in 2016. When it comes to third parties, we may now be approaching a similar paradigm shift.” (10/05/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/third-parties-independents-voter-discontent/
- Moderation in the Pursuit of Liberty
Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg“Wall Street Journal columnist Barton Swaim’s ‘A Suggestion for Young Radicals’ to embrace moderation (October 1) might seem to bring the second least appealing news hook for a commentator whose outlet is named after the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison who famously asserted that he would rather ‘tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm’ than ‘use moderation in a cause like the present … I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.’ At least Swaim’s contribution keeps the Journal‘s op-ed page going when even the New York Times has moved on to so-called ‘guest essays.'” (10/05/26)
- Trump’s Other War
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul“As the midterm election draws near, a number of Republicans in tough races are distancing themselves from President Trump’s war. The war is unpopular because it has inflicted economic pain on the already-suffering American people. No, I am not talking about the Iran War. I am talking about President Trump’s tariff war.” (10/05/26)
https://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/trumps-other-war
- Trump’s Antipathy Toward the Separation of Powers
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“It shouldn’t surprise us that Trump would want little or no interference with his MAGA vision and program. After all, why else would the Framers incorporate the separation of powers concept into the Constitution? They knew that rulers inevitably had a propensity toward exercising dictatorial powers to implement their vision and their plans. After all, Trump isn’t the first head of state to have this propensity.” (10/05/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/10/05/trumps-antipathy-toward-the-separation-of-powers/
- The President Doesn’t Have Unlimited Power to Impose Import Bans
Source: Lawfare
by Ilya Somin“Like tariffs, import restrictions are a congressional power under the Constitution, not an executive one. Thus, the president cannot impose import bans without congressional authorization. While some statutes delegate import restriction authority to the president, that power is strictly limited. And, as with tariffs, interpreting these authorities in a way that gives the president a blank check to impose import bans would run afoul of the major questions doctrine and constitutional nondelegation. It remains to be seen whether Trump or a future president might decide to claim sweeping authority to impose import bans at will. But when and if such an effort materializes, courts should strike it down.” (10/05/26)
- Anthropic’s creepy savants are trying to play God while pushing frightening utopian fantasies
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine“The artificial intelligence company Anthropic has been busy for months wining and dining religious leaders and influencers to try to push their self-serving agenda and utopian fantasies. The Vatican’s response has been to pour cold water on bizarre claims that Anthropic is embarking on its own ‘creation story’ to give birth to new sentient beings in the form of computer software. Billionaire co-founder Chris Olah, a 34-year-old Canadian-born evangelical who has turned his back on Christianity, thinks their AI model, Claude, has feelings and a sort of moral consciousness. He’s worried about its ‘mental health’ and believes it experiences human emotions like love and ‘suffers perpetually’, The New York Times reported.” (10/04/26)
- Government Should Liquidate Itself
source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith“An unalienable right is not possible under a government that claims a monopoly on the legal use of force. Governments of that type, found everywhere, had the energy and incentive to create the hell its media tries to hide. Potemkin villages are abundant. A presidential candidate who pledged to liquidate government in an orderly fashion and return governance to free market institutions and incentives, as we mostly had during the Revolutionary period, is our only peaceful hope.” (10/05/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/government-should-liquidate-itself
- The Anti-Federalist Warning About America’s Debt Crisis
Source: The Daily Economy
by Logan Tantibanchachai“Brutus feared that unlimited borrowing power would eventually overwhelm political restraint. Congress has accumulated 40 trillion reasons to reconsider that warning.” (10/05/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-anti-federalist-warning-about-americas-debt-crisis/
- Brazil on the Brink: Why Lula Is Down Against Bolsonaro Jr.
Source: Payday Report
by Mike Elk“With the Brazilian presidential election headed to a runoff, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is down 47% to 45% and faces a massive fight ahead. I wanted to give a quick analysis of what happened and where things are going next. Lula lost by only 2%, and several third-party candidates, who took a combined 8% of the vote, have publicly indicated they would not endorse Flávio Bolsonaro in the second round. Likewise, 29 million Brazilians did not vote in this round of the runoff and may be persuaded to vote for Lula in the second round if they fear Bolsonaro. While Brasil defeated Jair Bolsonaro narrowly in 2022, it swung right again, much like the United States. Voters are upset, and they are taking it out on the party in power.” (10/05/26)
https://paydayreport.com/what-caused-lulas-electoral-setback-how-he-could-still-win-the-runoff/
- A Democratic Senate Should Adopt Secret Impeachment Ballots on a Priority Basis
Source: The UnPopulist
by Andy Craig“The Constitution’s ‘indispensable’ remedy for a lawless president has been attempted four times and has never once succeeded. … The problem suggests a fix as simple as it is unglamorous: let the Senate vote on impeachment verdicts by secret ballot. Here is how it would work. On the final question of guilt under each article, senators would vote by secret ballot, with only the totals announced. Each senator’s vote would still be recorded and entered on the Senate Journal, as the Constitution requires. But that portion of the Journal would be sealed, published only after some reasonable length of time, such as 10 or 20 years. History gets the names. The president’s immediate ability to inflict political—or physical—punishment does not.” [editor’s note: Once that “sealing” precedent was established, how long would it be before the public could only know how “their representatives” had voted on ANYTHING until long afterward? – TLK] (10/05/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/a-democratic-senate-should-adopt
- Make Them Earn It, Don’t Give It to Them
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis“I’ve been reading that some Republicans, out of frustration, might stay home this year and not vote. Big mistake. Folks, we live in a very imperfect world. I doubt anybody on this earth agrees with anybody else 100 percent of the time. We make a huge blunder if we expect even near-perfection, especially from politicians. No, Donald Trump hasn’t done everything we wanted him to do. But he has done a lot of good things. But because Trump hasn’t been able to accomplish everything we want, and the Republican Congress has been aggravating, does that mean we want to turn the country back over to communist barbarians?” (10/05/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/10/05/make-them-earn-it-dont-give-it-to-them-n2684085
- Fewer Babies, Fresh Answers
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie“The birth rate is falling across the developed world. In England and Wales it now sits around 1.4 children per woman, well below the 2.1 needed to keep a population stable. Japan, Italy and South Korea are further down the same road. The usual response is gloom. Fewer workers, more pensioners, and a future of rising taxes and failing services. The gloom is overdone. The problems are real, but so are the solutions, and many of them are already arriving.” (10/05/26)
- Zionism OBVIOUSLY A Racist Ideology
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“On Sunday the UK Greens adopted a motion asserting that Zionism is a form of racism, defining the ideology as ‘an ethnonationalist political project’. Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, was immediately banned by the Israeli government from entering the nation after the motion was passed. As you might expect, Israel apologists are presently churning out hasbara trying to spin the new Green Party policy as an evil attack on Jews and arguing that Zionism is actually a perfectly lovely and normal thing that we should all support. ‘Zionism is just the belief that Jews deserve a homeland and self-determination,’ they’ll claim, often adding a suggestion that the real racists are those who would oppose such a reasonable position.” (10/05/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/10/05/zionism-is-obviously-a-racist-ideology/
- Jones Act waiver period disproves China fearmongering, shows benefits of reform
Source: The Hill
by Jonahan Helton“Defenders of the federal maritime law known as the Jones Act contend that the threat of Chinese expansion is a reason to keep its protectionist regulations in place. If the Jones Act were pared back, they say, Chinese vessels would take over U.S. shipping lanes. Unfortunately for them, this argument does not hold water — in fact, recent events strongly indicate that reforming the Jones Act could benefit Americans across the country. The 1920 law mandates that ships delivering goods from one U.S. point to another be flagged and built in the U.S. and mostly owned and crewed by Americans. But the law has been suspended for shipments of fuel and fertilizer since March 17. … The results of the waiver period so far show clearly that U.S. companies would buy more domestic products if Jones Act supply restrictions weren’t in the way.” (10/05/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/6118593-jones-act-reform-benefits/
- Caretakers or Conquerers?
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Joel Salatin“When President Trump’s Republican acolytes primaried long-time US Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) and defeated him in the most expensive Congressional primary race in history (about $30 million) in May, pundits offered their assumptions and agendas. The Trumpites said he wasn’t nice playing their ball game (I’m being diplomatic) and therefore deserved to be sidelined. They couldn’t abide a rogue Republican, even if he did vote with the president 92 percent of the time. Opposing the war in Iran was over the top. … I believe the American country-boy mystique is wrapped up in conquering things. Trump enjoys overwhelming support in rural America. Country folks like to fight. Hatfields and McCoys. President Obama and his wife Michelle planted a White House garden – nonchemical, by the way; fertilized with compost. President Trump hosts fighting on the lawn.” (10/05/26)
- Why Are the Homeless So Young?
Source: Independent Institute
by Christopher J Calton“In 1958, most homeless people in Chicago were at least 50 years old, and only around 10 percent were under 35. Three decades later, nearly 40 percent of Chicago’s homeless were younger than 35 years old, and other cities showed similar patterns. The falling age of the homeless was alarming in the 1980s, but according to federal data, the problem is even worse now. Today, an astonishing 47 percent of homeless persons are under 35, and more than one-quarter are younger than 25. Substance abuse, on the other hand, may help explain part of the shift.” (10/05/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/10/05/why-homeless-so-young/
- Don’t Bite
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders“When Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, most people looked at each other wondering what they had missed. Now, in 2026, two Nobel laureates in economics have produced an argument that ought to make us stroke our chins. Writing in Evonomics, George Akerlof and Robert Shiller argue for more regulation. Indeed, they write that they ‘wrote it for government officials, who undertake the usually thankless task of regulating business.’ They argue that markets create powerful incentives to take advantage of people—not necessarily because entrepreneurs are evil, but because businesspeople tend to exploit opportunities to profit from human weakness.” (10/05/26)
- The Cornell Seven and the Sensate-Pornographic Society
Source: American Greatness
by Stephen Soukup“At this point, no one can say anything for certain about the ‘Cornell Seven’ case, except that bad things happened and no one will receive justice. The first of these is painfully obvious. Even if everything was consensual and legal, the young woman (Jane Doe) put herself in an extremely foolish and dangerous position, while the boys (certainly not men, by any stretch of the imagination) behaved monstrously, participating in or facilitating her sexual exploitation. The second should be just as obvious, although nearly all observers will pretend otherwise. Like everything else in our politically obsessed society, this case of sexual exploitation has morphed into a case of political exploitation, with the usual suspects lining up on both sides of the issue, using it to score ideological points and make partisan gains.” (10/05/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/05/the-cornell-seven-and-the-sensate-pornographic-society/
- Was Frederick Douglass a free speech absolutist? Part 2
Source: Expression
by Jacob Mchangama“He called press freedom ‘the Palladium of Liberty.’ But when did it become more of a curse than a blessing? What were an editor’s ethical duties? Should libels be met with speech or the law?” (10/05/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/was-frederick-douglass-a-free-speech-79c
- Bad Move
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“What is Mr. Trump thinking? It’s simply the wrong way to govern: Using the public purse to broadcast pro-yourself messages to the people. And is there any constituency — outside of Mr. Trump — for these television spots? One that would override the stench from misusing public resources in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue? The White House calls these ads public service announcements. The whole thing smacks of leader-worship. Plus, the messages are purely political. The timing seems awfully vote-solicitous: ‘Together we will defeat.'” (10/05/26)
- Optimum Population: Average, total, or …
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman“Utility functions are observed in the form of choices. If negative utility is the level at which existence is worse than nonexistence, zero utility is the level below which a person, given the choice, would prefer not to exist. People have that choice; for many of us, suicide is not only possible but inexpensive: All it costs is our life. Following the principle of consumer sovereignty to its somewhat grisly conclusion, it seems natural to say that if a person, having access to means for killing himself, refrains from doing so, it must be because his utility for living is greater than for dying. Making allowance for costs such as pain, injury to others, and the price of the bullet, we have a definition of zero utility: A person’s utility is zero when he is indifferent between committing and not committing a costless suicide.” (10/05/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/optimum-population-average-total
- The Federal Government Ran Up a $2 Trillion Deficit in 2026
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille“Fiscal year 2026 ended last week, and while official figures aren’t out yet, it looks like the federal government spent $2 trillion more than it took in. That’s not quite a record—in dollar terms, the federal government ran a bigger deficit in 2020 when the feds showered money on the country in hopes of offsetting COVID-19 lockdowns (fueling inflation in the process), and the deficit was a bigger share of GDP both that year and during the Great Recession. But given the federal government hasn’t balanced its books in 25 years, a $2 trillion deficit adds to already staggering national debt and looming disaster.” (10/05/26)
https://reason.com/2026/10/05/the-federal-government-ran-up-a-2-trillion-deficit-in-2026/
- Education, Vouchers, and School Choice
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance“Most cases of choice involve goods that are much more distinguishable than almost identical bottles of ketchup: for example, cars, houses, furniture, shoes, clothes, pets. But choice is not limited to just goods. Sometimes, people choose between and among experiences: for example, cruises, concerts, sporting events, museums, zoos, and amusement parks. The same is true when it comes to the provision of services: for example, pest control, dentistry, hair styling, auto repair, landscaping, tanning. Although every service imaginable is or has been provided by the free market, governments at every level are united in their belief that there is one service that government at some level should provide, fund, regulate, control, and/or mandate that every child should receive: education.” (10/05/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/education-vouchers-and-school-choice/
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 10/05/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Trump Prepares for MORE War With Iran.” (10/05/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-kyle-anzalone-show-trump-prepares-for-a-more-war-with-iran
- The Dispatch Podcast, 10/06/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Can the State Be Trusted With the Death Penalty?” (10/06/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/dispatch-podcast/can-the-state-be-trusted-with-the-death-penalty/
- Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 10/05/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“Mosquito-Borne Illnesses + a ’30-Cent Solution’ to the Global Water Crisis w/ Kurt Avery.” (10/05/26)
- NPR Politics Podcast, 10/05/26
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“The path to Senate control runs through this state.” (10/05/26)
https://www.npr.org/2026/10/05/nx-s1-5991467/the-path-to-senate-control-runs-through-this-state
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/05/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Resumes Refueling Saudi Fighter Jets After 8 Years, Tanker Attacks in Hormuz Escalate, and More.” (10/05/260
- Reason Roundtable, 10/05/26
Source: Reason
“Are the Cornell 7 Being Tried on Social Media?” (10/05/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/10/05/are-the-cornell-7-being-tried-on-social-media/
- Rising, 10/05/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave delivers his notes on the Cornell 7 and the condemning online discourse surrounding the story despite no conviction in a court of law.” (10/05/26)
- Sidewalk Civics, 10/05/26
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
“Can Congress be Fixed?” (10/05/26)
- The Daily, 10/05/26
Source: New York Times
“Midterm Surprise: Democrats Are Surging in Red America.” (10/05/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 10/05/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Surprise! The Military Budget Is Much Higher Than You Think!” (10/05/26)
- TechTank, season 5, episode 50
Source: Brookings Institution
“Addressing ‘insider’ AI agents with Camille Stewart Gloster.” (10/05/26)
https://shows.acast.com/tech-tank/episodes/addressing-insider-ai-agents-with-camille-stewart-gloster
- EconTalk, 10/05/26
Source: EconLog
“Addiction, Faith, and the Limits of Willpower (with Meghan O’Gieblyn).” (10/05/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/addiction-faith-and-the-limits-of-willpower-with-meghan-ogieblyn/
- Ted Snider on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Ted Snider on Why the War in Ukraine Isn’t Ending.” (10/05/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/10-1-26-ted-snider-on-why-the-war-in-ukraine-isnt-ending/
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 10/05/26
Source: The Dispatch
“The Death of Homo Economicus | Interview: Nick Eberstadt.” (10/05/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/the-death-of-homo-economicus-interview-nick-eberstadt/
- Reason Interview: Dan Osborn
Source: Reason
“Dan Osborn discusses breaking with both parties, opposing the Iran war, and how he plans to win over Trump voters.” (10/05/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/10/05/can-nebraskas-dan-osborn-win-over-libertarians/
- Poliitco Playbook Audio Briefing, 10/05/26
Source: Politico
“Paxton’s campaign control.” (10/05/26)
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 10/04/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Showdown at the UN as the US and Iran Escalate Tensions.” (10/04/26)
- Free Talk Live, 10/04/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Michael in TX calls about the clown presidency and the greatness of FTL :: NCI engineered reality scoring system :: Sarah in NM calls about local politics :: tax talk with Bear Arms :: lawfultaxavoidance.com :: realsecondamendment.com :: Seattle to fix grocery prices :: vets use less opioids where cannabis is legal :: DOJ wants Iran’s bitcoin from oil sales :: David in NM calls to ‘control the show’ :: 2026-10-04 :: Hosts: Stu, Riley O’Bill, Bear Arms, Nobody.” (10/04/26)
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/04/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Saudi-Backed Leader Announces New Yemen Offensive, IDF Kills Two Christian Women in Gaza, and More.” (10/04/26)
- Serious Trouble, 10/03/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“National controversy erupts over a rape non-prosecution at Cornell; Jeanine Pirro has various prosecutorial troubles; Sheri Mecklenburg leaves the Chicago US Attorney’s office with a bang.” (10/03/26)